? about plurals

Question

Ok, this has been driving me crazy all afternoon! My husband and I were watching a sports news program and the sportscaster said something about a team winning "consecutive game ones". I thought it sounded odd and figured it should be "games one", but my sweet hubby insists that the sportscaster said it right. Ack! I know it doesn't matter, but it's making me nuts! And being a homeschooling mom, it would be nice to know the answer so I can teach my children to speak correctly

Thank you!

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

First and foremost, I wouldn't waste too much thought trying to figure out what a sportscaster says. These guys are notorious for bad grammar and terrible diction.

... a team winning "consecutive game ones". I have no idea what that means. I would think what he said was .... consecutive games won.

Of course, you could hunt around for some oddball context ('These are my practice game uniforms, and these are my actual game ones') but I doubt he said anything like that, and I can't think how you'd fit in the 'consecutive' word.

Best wishes, Clive

Khoff · Answer

I am certainly no expert in sports talk, but I took it to mean something like this: the team is playing in a series of match-ups of, say, three games against each opponent. They won the first game of the first series. They won the first game of the second series. They won the first game of the third series. They won three consecutive "Game #1"s.

Now, whether it should be "game ones" or "games one" - technically, following the pattern of "attorneys general" and "brothers-in-law" I suppose it should really be "games one" -- but there are two problems with that. First, few people speak correctly enough to know that rule, and, second, "games one" is too easily confused with "games won." I think the best way to deal with it would be to say "the team won consecutive First Games."

Somewhere, perhaps in The Onion (a satirical news-magazine parody) there was an item about William Safire, who writes a language column for The New York Times, going into Burger King and ordering "Two Whoppers, Junior." (Instead of "two Whopper Juniors" as most people would say.) I imagine he would say "games one." But you can't expect that level of linguistic sophistication from a sports announcer.

Elliebutton · Answer

Thank you! LOL on sportscaster speak being awful

khoff, you got the meaning right. My hubby's argument was that it would sound like "games won", but grammar is grammar, even if it sounds confusing. ITA with the revamped sentence. Too bad they would never go for it. Ah well, at least I don't let my kids watch that kind of thing LOL! The Burger King line is great - I'll be sure to share that with my husband!

MrPedantic · Answer

I'd take "game one" as a compound noun: "game-one". In which case you could simply stick an S on the end:

Cf.

1. Ten Mister Qs - ok.

2. Ten Misters Q - dodgy.

MrP

Welkins2139 · Answer

I think sportcasters have their own grammars. They often leave out less important words. I think your phrases like " consecutive, game, ones "

game in adjective mean " eager and willing to undetake something risky; brave.

one is a cardinal numeral which answers " how many " if we make it plurals, we have " ones"

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